Does Your Kid Have Birthdate Good Fortune? How to Deal With a Bad Birthday Month

We've just returned from a weekend in Oregon where we celebrated our oldest son's birthday. Technically he doesn't turn 5 until Tuesday, but oddly enough, he didn't seem to have any qualms about having presents and cake a few days early.

Riley's birthday is August 31, a date I don't particularly recommend in terms (har!) of pregnancy comfort. During the days before he was born, my wrists and ankles completely disappeared in favor of a taut expanse of swollen sausage-y flesh, and I felt like I was waddling around on a couple of puffy foot-balloons. Even my eyes receded, beadily, into my moony water-retaining face. Lord, it was a long, hot summer.

Advertisement

In comparison, my feet stayed recognizable as such when my second son was born on February 4, 2008. The cold, dreary weather kept me from swelling up like Violet Beauregarde, but really, that's about the only nice thing I have to say about February. Most of us can probably agree that it's one of the most depressing times of year—the holiday season over and done, spring still far from sight.

So now we have two kids with birthdays half a year apart. One at the end of summer when the weather is usually something close to perfect (well, unless you're 8.5 months pregnant), one when you don't dare venture outside for fear of being drenched in the Northwest's chilly winter rains. One we usually celebrate at the family cabin in Oregon, because what better place to have a birthday than a spot where the kids can run and play and swim with their cousins; one we celebrate ... at home.

It doesn't seem quite fair, does it?

Granted, Dylan isn't old enough yet to be jealous about his brother's birthdate good fortune, but I'm thinking ahead to the years to come, and wondering how you can make a February kid's birthday as fun as an August kid's. Other than flying the whole family to Hawaii, which would of course be awesome, but probably not entirely practical every year. Or really, ANY year any time soon, because oh my god two kids on a plane, I'd rather deal with the snakes.

Do any of you have a similar good birthday month/bad birthday month challenge? What do you do about it?